Readiness & Preparation

Assessing Your Readiness

Before beginning to plan your intervention, it is important to assess the community’s readiness allowing for a greater chance of success. Additionally, proper preparation will also improve your chances of planning and implementing an effective intervention.

Assessing the community’s interest in addressing the priority health issue is an important measure of readiness. Additionally, determining if there is leadership support, partnership engagement, and resources to implement an effective intervention are indicators of readiness.

The Show Me Am I Ready is a tool to help guide you through the process of evaluating if the community is ready to plan and implement an intervention to address the priority health issue. The scale provides ten essential questions to guide your thinking in determining readiness to proceed with planning and intervention.

Show Me Am I Ready Scale
The Show Me Am I Ready scale is designed to help you, your partners and those who may be affected by your intervention evaluate readiness. Choose the most appropriate response for each item ("Good," "Fair" or "Poor") by clicking in the circle. When you complete the last item, check to make sure that you have entered a response for each item and that it is correct. After you are finished, click the "Submit" button at the end to get your results. You may also want to print a copy of the worksheet, complete it with your partners and then enter and submit the responses on-line to receive your score.

Thank you for completing the Show Me Am I Ready scale!

Evaluate your score:

If you received:

20 out of 20
Wonderful! Your score shows us that you are ready to begin planning and implementing your intervention. Please proceed to the next sections to help you get started.

15-19 out of 20 Congratulations! Your score shows us that you are ready to begin planning and implementing your intervention. You may want to consider the following suggestions as you proceed with the next sections to help you make your intervention successful.

10-14 out of 20Caution! While you obviously have been working to get ready for planning and implementing your intervention, your score indicates there is additional work to be done. Please review the following suggestions before you proceed to the next sections.

0-9 out of 20Stop! Your score indicates that you are not yet ready to begin planning and implementing an intervention. Please read and consider the following suggestions before proceeding with the next sections.

Suggestions to help you prepare for planning and implementing your intervention:

If you marked fair or poor on:

Question 1
In order for your intervention to be successful, it is important to think about those who will be affected. If a priority population for the intervention has not been identified, please go to the Assessment section for guidance. If a priority population has been identified, decide how to engage them in discussions about the need to address the health issue of concern. This can be done informally by having conversations with representatives of the group or more formally through interviews, group discussions or surveys. To ensure ongoing input from the priority population, it is important that representatives be included in the process of planning and implementing an intervention. Go to Related Links for more information.

Question 2 Within any community, there are decision makers that influence what gets done and how it gets done. These decision makers may be found within schools, businesses, civic organizations, advocacy groups or they may be elected officials. Because politics may play an important role in how interventions are planned and implemented, it is important to identify these key decision makers that can have an impact on your intervention. Be sure to identify those who may support your intervention as well as those who may not support it. It is critical to know of any political barriers you may encounter before you begin so that you can plan accordingly. You may want to have informal conversations with these individuals, or use more formal communication such as interviews, group discussions or surveys to gain input from these individuals or groups. Go to Related Links for more information.

Question 3Partnerships play an important role in the success of any intervention. Intervention MICA has an entire section dedicated to creating partnerships. Go to Creating Partnerships or Related Links for more information.

Question 4Sometimes working within your own organization can present challenges. Therefore, it is crucial to gain the support from your organization’s leadership prior to beginning planning an intervention. Keep your supervisors informed all along the way in preparing to plan the intervention. Invite them to your partnership meetings, and ask them to talk with the partners about the need to address the health issue. Establishing ownership and buy-in from your organization’s leaders will be essential for continued support throughout the project. Go to Related Links for more information.

Question 5Identifying and securing funding are essential to successful intervention planning and implementation. Preparing a preliminary budget and having a good understanding of the costs associated with potential interventions can provide valuable information about what you may be able to do and not do. CHIR provides a section describing how to prepare a budget and potential sources of funding. Go to Budget Preparation and Funding Resources. You may also find additional information in Related Links.

Questions 6, 7 or 8One of the biggest challenges in planning and implementing any intervention is trying to manage with the staff and resources that you may have or that you can afford. As you plan the intervention, you will need to refer to the preliminary budget you have prepared to determine if you can afford to do what you want to do. Interventions that are resource intensive requiring considerable staff, equipment and materials may not be feasible. You may need to provide training for your existing staff rather than hiring new staff. In the end, the intervention of choice may be determined by the resources available. Go to Funding Resources to identify potential sources of funding or to Related Links for more information.

Questions 9 or 10Positive working relationships among your partnership and team members are essential for planning and implementing an effective intervention. It is critical to develop strong leadership and conflict resolution skills among team members to build the capacity to deal with day to day problems in managing the intervention planning and implementation. Several resources are available on strengthening leadership capacity and team building. Go to Related Links for more information.